It is known to provide wireless networks in which an infrastructure is provided to enable communication between electronic devices. A simple infrastructure is a basic service set (BSS), which comprises one Access Point (AP) and at least one client device. BSS's with the same service set identifier (SSID) form an extended service set (ESS). A client device typically associates with only one of the APs in the ESS to get access to a service, such as the Internet. It is worthwhile to note that a client device can be associated with only one AP at a time. For association, client devices usually select the AP that provides the highest signal strength in comparison to the signal strength provided by other APs in the same service set (SS). By doing so, a client device aims to maximize the quality of its direct wireless link with the access point (AP).
Most of the clients in a typical wireless network are mobile devices. These mobile devices, after associating with an AP, are likely to wander. For example, mobile devices may be moved by their user from one physical location to another physical location, and after having been moved they observe poor signal strength from the AP which they are associated with. If there is an AP (which is a member of the same ESS) in the vicinity of the client device, that can provide a better signal strength, then the client device would be well off associating with that AP. However, not every client device changes the AP it is associated with while wandering in the network. The term, ‘sticky client’ is used for such a client device that does not move to a better AP, even if its link quality with its current AP degrades significantly.
A sticky client may result in drastic performance degradation in the overall performance of a wireless network. This is because, when the link quality between the AP and the client device is poor, the AP and the client device need to use lower modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) for successful packet delivery, which takes a higher share from the airtime in comparison to transmissions in better quality links. Since the low quality links dominate the airtime usage, the overall network performance is mandated by the client devices that have poor links, yielding a significantly degraded overall network performance, such as in terms of throughput.
In order to address at least some of the above described issues, there is provided a wireless network device, for use within a wireless network, comprising: a processor; a memory; and an interface for receiving and transmitting data; wherein the wireless network device is adapted to: determine a first cost associated with communication between the wireless network device and a client device to which the wireless network device is connectable; determine a second cost associated with communication between the client device and a further wireless network device to which the client device is connectable; determine whether the first cost or the second cost is the lower cost; and if the second cost is the lower cost, the wireless network device is adapted to guide the client device to communicate with the further network device.
Further aspects of the invention will be apparent from the appended description and claims.